Tunisia: Trading Freedom for Stability May Not Last – An International Security Perspective

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1 ‘Tunisia uses education as weapon in fight against poverty’, The Jakarta Post, 17 Oct. 2007.

2 Fyllis Hockman, ‘Tunisia: where Jews and Muslims live in harmony’, Copley News Service, 12 Jan. 2007.

3 ‘Tunisia strengthens its presence in Southeast Asia’, Antara – The Indonesian National News Agency, 16 March 2007.

4 ‘Tunisia can be bridge between China and Africa’, Chinadaily.com.cn, 22 Nov. 2007.

5 In his attempt to pursue secularism, Bourguiba rejected many of the precepts of Islam (e.g., fasting and pilgrimage). Layachi Azzedine and Haireche Abdel‐Kader, ‘National Development and Political Protest: Islamists in the Maghreb Countries’, Arab Studies Quarterly 14/2–3 (Spring/Summer 1992) pp.69–83.

6 Ben Ali was Bourguiba’s prime minister when he staged the coup.

7 ‘Officials fear North African terror base’, United Press International, 20 Feb. 2007. ‘We know from cases that we’re working on that the GSPC’s [ Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat] mission is now to recruit people in Morocco and Tunisia, train them and send them back to their countries of origin or Europe to mount attacks’, said Jean‐Louis Bruguiere, the French counter‐terrorism magistrate.

8 Mohammed El‐Khawas, ‘Revolutionary Islam in North Africa: Challenges and Responses’, Africa Today 43/4 (Oct.–Dec. 1996) pp.385–405.

9 ‘German FM pushes political reforms in Tunisia’, Agence France Presse – English, 16 Nov. 2006.

10 A strategic loss for the Ben Ali government was that it had to release lawyer Mohammed Abbou in late Sept. 2007. In 2005, Abbou was sent to jail for three and a half years, whom the international community described as being a political prisoner, while the Tunisian government declared it held no political prisoners.

11 Franceso Cavatorta, ‘Geopolitical Challenges to the Success of Democracy in North Africa: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco’, Democratization 8/4 (Winter 2001) pp.175–94.

12 Ana Isabel Contreras, ‘Recent History of the Maghreb: A Sociological Approach’, Language and Intercultural Communication 7/ 2 (2007) pp.109–21.

13 ‘British Gas to invest 1.25 billion dollars in Tunisia’, Agence France Presse – English, 20 June 2007.

14 ‘Tunisia; “Tunisia Caucus” sees the day within US Congress’, Africa News, 14 June 2007.

15 ‘Tunisia: President Ben Ali receives US Congressional Delegation’, AfricaNews, 31 May 2007.

16 Michael J. Willis, ‘Containing radicalism through the political process in North Africa’, Mediterranean Politics 11/2 (July 2006) pp.137–50.

17 ‘Tunisia; freedom of expression still under siege over one year after WSI’, Africa News 23 Jan. 2007.

18 Ibid.

19 ‘Tunisia – a textbook case in press censorship for the past 20 years’, CanadaNewsWire, 5 Nov. 2007).

20 ‘Italian minister says Tunisia underestimates terrorist threat from North Africa’, Associated Press Worldstream, 4 April 2007.

21 Gema Martin‐Munoz, ‘Political reform and social change in the Maghreb’, Mediterranean Politics 5/1 (Spring 2000) pp.96–130.

22 Willis (note 16) p.139.

23 ‘Tunisia charges 29 suspected terrorists with plotting’, Agence France Presse – English, 19 Sept. 2007.

24 ‘Tunisia; President Ben Ali Outlines Tunisian Foreign Policy Orientations’, Africa News, 25 Jan. 2007.

25 Azzedine and Abdel‐Kader (note 5).

26 To quote Cavatorta (note 11) p.180: ‘Demographic data reinforce the economic divide […] with scarce economic opportunities, migration is for many, the only way out of a desperate economic situation. Those who stay behind are increasingly attracted to the Islamic project.’

27 ‘Tunisia arrests 38 migrants en route to Italy’, Agence France Presse – English, 25 July 2007.

28 Mohammed El‐Khawas, ‘North Africa and the War on Terror’, Mediterranean Quarterly 14/4 (Fall 2003) pp.176–91.

29 ‘President Ben Ali holds talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’, Tunisia Online, 27 Nov. 2007.

30 Bechir Chourou, ‘The Challenge of Democracy in North Africa’, Democratization 9/1 (Spring 2002) pp.17–39.

31 Gema Martin‐Munoz, ‘Political reform and social change in the Maghreb’, Mediterranean Politics 5/1 (Spring 2000) pp. 96–130.